The Tea Converse
by fionasquid
Summary: Spilled tea and something else bring Doctor and Rose back together.


There was a world without him. His flying blue box and his stupid alien jokes that always made her laugh. This world was just lacking adventures. And she was stuck in there.

Rose had tried to settle down. She worked in the local store and got paid nicely. Not too nicely but enough to take care of herself. She had her mother and Mickey there but they couldn't take her to the places where the Doctor had taken her, not beyond just this world – he had shown her the stars and how amazing it really could be out there. Nothing could ever compare to that.

With her pay check she had eventually been able to rent a flat for herself. She needed the peace and quiet to be around her so her thoughts could go along the memory lane and take her back to their adventures and happy days without anyone barging in to disturb her. That's all that she had left from him – the memories stained inside her head.

Rose shook her head slightly bringing herself back to the present moment. The teapot was screaming sharply, the vapour rushing out from its trap.

"Shit!" she cursed and dashed to take the pot off from the stove. It had been boiling for too long and now almost half of her tea water had disappeared to the air. After pouring the water into her mug, it barely even filled.

Sighing she took the tea-bags out of the kitchen cabin and soaked one of them into the hot water. She really didn't have a specific reason for her down mood. Being down was something that she had gotten used to by now, but today her mood was even worse than usually. Even the raspberry tea tasted like a piece of dusted, old cardboard on her tongue.

Taking careful sips from the mug, she paced towards the living room. Maybe some crappy TV would be on. Like _Poprah_, the most popular talk show among the stay-at-home moms of this world. But as she was searching for the remote control, Rose heard something that made her froze inside. A noise that sounded like an eerie but loving wind would've opened the window and started to cascade into the house. She knew the sound and it wasn't a wind. It was him.

A flash of blue reflected against her white wall. She squinted her eyes and then rubbed them with her knuckles as if to make sure that she wasn't dreaming. A few more flashes of dark blue and the Tardis was completely apparent to the eye. A moment passed but nothing happened – the blue box was in the middle of her living room and she was standing still, holding her tea cup with both of her palms and staring the box in front of her.

The door started to open slowly and she kept her eyes fixed to the Tardis. The side of the Doctor's face peaked out and he was looking around the room. His head stopped and tilted when he saw her.

"So apparently I had the right address."

He walked into the room and eyeballed the walls. Not exactly the kind of place that he had expected her home to be like, but it was nice. Few movie posters were hanged on them. Movies that he had never even heard of but that didn't come as a surprise for him. A long time had passed since his last visit to this world. And when he had been there he hadn't exactly had the time to go and catch the latest version of some horror movie. Looks like that wasn't the case with her.

"Hello," he said and walked so he was standing just a few feet away from her figure.

She looked happy, puzzled, sad and horrified all at the same time. Her position hadn't change even a bit and the tea cup was starting to burn her hands little by little. He tilted his head to left and tried to get an answer out of her by staring at her in the eyes. As Rose met his gaze, she snapped back to reality and realized what was going on. This was no dream, this was really happening.

The numbness faded from her hands and the burning feeling stung hard and painfully them. She let the mug slide from her grip and as it hit the floor, its liquid contents spilling all over his shoes and the porcelain mug shattering into two halves.

"Damn tea," she whispered and looked down to the floor. His Converses were soaking wet and the tea had changed their light blue colour into a darker shade.

"It's OK," he assured to her. "Don't worry about them."

He placed his hand to touch her shoulder and she shivered. How long had she waited to be able to feel him against her just one more time? She began to shift her gaze up from the floor, examining every line of him thoroughly, moving from his legs to his chest and finally to his face. He wore the same clothes he almost always had on him – the suit and the long brown coat. The six months they had been separated hadn't really changed him much. Maybe some hair growth was noticeable and he had some stubble but that was pretty much it. Same old new, new doctor.

She looked him to the eyes. _So there the change was hiding._ He seemed to be exhausted from something, emotionally-drained. Rose tried to step closer but he stopped her.

"Watch out your for your feet. The splinters are sharp and you are not wearing any shoes," he said bringing his free hand to rest on her other shoulder.

She paced closer watching her feet and being careful not to hit her bare foot in one of the broken piece's sharp edges. He helped her keep her balance by tightening his grip to her and when she had hopped through the mug's pieces, he pulled her against his chest.

"Hello," she finally said back to his greeting. "What are you doing here?"

He had been expecting that she'd be puzzled and wanting to know every detail about everything. The thing though was that he didn't know how he had ended up to her place with the Tardis. He had gotten the feeling that he could find his way to her and then he had just found himself in her apartment.

"I missed you."

"I know but that wasn't what I asked you," she said.

"I don't know."

"Of course you know. You know everything. You are supposed to know everything," she said sounding a bit angry. _If popping into this parallel universe was so easy, why hadn't he come sooner?_

He saw that she was hurt.

"Trust me, I would've come if I just had known how. The Tardis blew me in here. No idea how but here I am."

And she believed him. His eyes told her everything that she needed to know in order to trust him.

She raised her palms to cup his cheeks and closed her eye lids. He felt good and soft. Maybe he was now travelling with somebody else and was using her skin products. Or not. That moment Rose didn't want to think about that. Pulling his face closer to hers, she buried her nose to his neck and slowly moved it up to his hair. It smelled like sun and dandelions. As she shifted her palms to play with his tufty hair, he closed his eyes and tilted his head to left. Bringing his hands up to her neck, he entwined his fingers together and pulled her carefully close to him, closing all the gaps that had still been between them.

A soft lick on her earlobe.

She stiffened and forced his face to come up so she could look him to the eyes. He stared at her. Their looks spoke for themselves. No words were needed.

A kiss on the lips.

She buried her hands to his hair and forced his lips harder against hers. Taking a step back, he managed to keep his balance and started responding. She moved her tongue on his teeth and tasted a banana on them. _Has he been partying?_ She smiled and deepened the kiss by widening her mouth. A new taste came along – longing. And he was delivering it into her mouth, making her eyes glister from tears. Soon after the salty droplet fell down her cheek and the kiss started to taste like ocean.

He slid his hands to her back and caressed the skin in there. She arced her back and made a tiny moan into his mouth.

A tightened grip to her.

She relaxed and broke the kiss. His eyes were still closed and he was panting warm air against her face, her forehead resting on his cheek.

Almost tiredly and unwillingly she brought herself back from heaven to earth. She held her hand towards him, urging him to grab it. He did.

"I missed you too."

They walked hand-in-hand pass the mug splinters and he made sure that she didn't step on them.


End file.
